Months before hurricanes Maria and Irma hit the Caribbean in fall 2017, I booked a trip to explore the Virgin Islands by yacht. I knew little about the islands, other than they must be relatively untouched as their name suggested.

After Maria and Irma passed, damage to Puerto Rico dominated the headlines. I began to wonder, and worry, that the Virgin Islands just east may have been similarly destroyed. I didn’t plan to cancel my trip. It was canceled for me.

Cow Wreck Beach in Anegada is a well-kept with colorful decorations and a popular restaurant and bar. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

A tourist safari vehicle at Magens Bay Beach in the isle of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

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The Windward Passage Hotel is one of the higher end places to stay in central Charlotte Amalie. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

Shrimp and fish ceviche served at Shoreline Bar & Grill at the Point Pleasant Resort in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

Saint Thomas is a hilly isle in the U.S. Virgin Islands with dramatic views of the Caribbean Sea. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

Coki Point Beach in Saint Thomas is secluded, with only a few hotels and restaurants on the sand. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

Cow Wreck Beach in Anegada is a well-kept with colorful decorations and a popular restaurant and bar. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

Devil’s Bay at The Baths National Park features massive boulders that visitors can climb on. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

The Baths in Virgin Gorda isle of the British Virgin Islands are a collection of gigantic granite boulders that form sheltered beachside sea pools that visitors can climb around and on top of. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

View of a bay at sunset from a high road in the isle of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

Anegada is flat throughout, unlike other isles of the British Virgin Islands that are hilly and rugged. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

View of a bay from a high road in the isle of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

View of a bay from a high road in the isle of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

The “painkiller” cocktail of dark rum, coconut, pineapple and orange juice and nutmeg, pictured in White Bay at Jost Van Dyke, is a Virgin Islands favorite. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

View of a bay from a high road in the isle of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

The “painkiller” cocktail of dark rum, coconut, pineapple and orange juice and nutmeg, pictured at a bar in Anegada, is a Virgin Islands favorite. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

A man prepares fresh caught lobster for dinner by the water in the isle of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

The Willy T. is a 100-foot schooner boat with a restaurant and bar near Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

The ferry ride from Charlotte Amalie in the U.S. Virgin Islands to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands passes by many of the other islands in the archipelago. (Photo by Jessica Kwong)

Just over two years later, over the holidays, I flew to Saint Thomas, the gateway isle of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The island looked small as we descended, and we deplaned by airstairs to a tarmac surrounded by rolling green hills.

A man who picked my friends and me up at the airport to take us to the car rental shop drove on the left side of the road and beat us to our observation.

“It was a Danish island and they (never) bothered to switch it back,” he said. “The only place in America where they drive on the wrong side.”

He also pointed out something I did not notice.

“See the blue and white building?” he said. “That’s where the hurricane hit. No more roof.”

It took a bit of adjusting even being a passenger in a car driving on the left hand side. Luckily I wasn’t going to be the driver. Instead, I held on and marveled at the lush terrain and pristine aqua water as we rode up and down in rollercoaster fashion.

We wound up at Magens Bay, which came recommended as one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean. It had a white sand beach, sideways growing palm trees and colorful pickup trucks turned tourist “safari” vehicles.

In the morning, we took a ferry on a less than hour-long ride to Tortola, the largest isle of the British Virgin Islands and where you do need a passport to enter. From there, we got aboard our island hopping yacht. We sailed to the northernmost of the BVI, Anegada, a low-lying island only 28 feet above sea level. Its uncharacteristically flat surface for the archipelago makes it ideal for exploring by scooter. On the smooth ride, we spotted flamingos in the distance, piles of abandoned conch shells and Cow Wreck Beach, which did not look like a wreck at all.

Thirteen nautical miles south lay the Virgin Gorda, where we could dock. The island’s treasure is The Baths National Park, home to a group of massive granite boulders on the beach that form sea pools only reachable by scaling boulders with ropes and ladders. The boulders are so close together they feel like caves. The water was tranquil, the scene spa-like. Nearby Devil’s Bay, accessible by a trail, also had big boulders but instead of climbing between them, you get on top of them. Along one of the trails, in big blue wooden letters, were the words “ONE BVI.”

Sailing west, we approached Jost Van Dyke, which I expected to be one of the least virgin of the islands because its bars are beyond locally famous. Jost Van Dyke also gave me the best sense of what Maria and Irma did. As we docked, I saw locals with wood and tools seeming to build a structure in the otherwise empty bay. When I went ashore in search of a restroom, they told me it was not ready.

We left the secluded bay on the back of a flatbed truck with benches built in and got chauffeured to White Bay. There sat the Soggy Dollar, a restaurant and bar that claims to have invented and perfected the “Painkiller,” a concoction of dark rum, coconut cream, pineapple and orange juice sprinkled with nutmeg, in secret proportions. Curious as to how well they had mastered the cocktail, I asked if they can make it virgin.

“Yes we can,” I was told. “No rum added.”

On the flatbed truck ride back, we drove past the legendary Foxy’s, where everyone in the BVI apparently convenes for New Year’s, watched the sun go down from great hilly heights and tried to spot our yacht with the wind in our faces. When we got back to where we docked at Diamond Cay, the wood planks had already been built into a full service bar and a stage. The grills were fired up, live music was on full blast and the locals were part of the party.

I soon realized that everything in the Virgin Islands is on “island time” — except when it comes to rebuilding and making guests feel welcome.

If you go

Magens Bay

A bay in the north side of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands with a white sand beach that has been ranked among the best in the Caribbean.

Jessica Kwong covers Santa Ana and transportation for The Orange County Register. A Los Angeles native, Kwong grew up speaking Spanish, Cantonese and English, in that order, and has spent much of her journalism career working in Spanish-language media. She started her career at the San Francisco Chronicle and has also been a staff writer for the San Antonio Express-News, La Opinión, Time Warner Cable Sports and the San Francisco Examiner. Kwong has won awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications, California Newspaper Publishers Association, San Francisco Peninsula Press Club and East Bay Press Club and has been a fellow for The New York Times and Hearst Newspapers. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature in Spanish and English and Mass Communications from the University of California, Berkeley.